04 June 2023 , 01:53
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The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has warned the regime will launch a spy satellite into space orbit.
Kim's sister and senior ruling party official, Kim Yo-jong slammed a UN Security Council meeting over the North's first, failed launch.
She called the UN council "a political appendage" of the United States, saying its recent meeting was held following America's "gangster-like request."
The North's attempt to put its first military spy satellite into orbit last Wednesday failed as its rocket crashed off the Korean Peninsula's western coast.
A military surveillance satellite is among a list of sophisticated weapons systems that Kim Jong-un has vowed to acquire amid tension with the United States.
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Kim Jong-un's attempt to put North Korea's first military spy satellite into orbit failed (Getty Images)Since the start of 2022, Kim has carried out more than 100 missile tests in what he called a warning over expanded military drills between the US and South Korea.
An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council was held at the request of the US, Japan and other countries to discuss the launch because it had violated council resolutions banning the North from performing any launch using ballistic technology.
She accused the UN council of being "discriminative and rude" because it only takes issue with the North's satellite launches while thousands of satellites launched by other countries are already operating in space. She said her country's attempt to acquire a spy satellite is a legitimate step to respond to military threats posed by the US and its allies.
"(North Korea) will continue to take proactive measures to exercise all the lawful rights of a sovereign state, including the one to a military reconnaissance satellite launch," Kim Yo-jong said in a statement carried by state media.
In her earlier statement, she said the North's spy satellite "will be correctly put on space orbit in the near future" but didn't say when its second launch attempt would take place.
South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers it will likely take "more than several weeks" for North Korea to learn the cause of the failed launch but it may attempt a second launch soon if defects aren't serious.
Experts say Kim would want to use his modernised weapons arsenal to grab concessions from Washington and its partners in future diplomacy.
After repeated failures, North Korea placed Earth-observation satellites into orbit in 2012 and 2016, but foreign experts say there is no evidence that either satellite transmitted imagery and other data.